PROCUREMENT CRAIG HOYLE RAF MARHAM UK prepares the ground for its first Lightning IIs to strike Infrastructure work gathers pace at Norfolk base ahead of mid-2018 arrival of nine F-35Bs ixteen years after signing up ($672 million), launched in simulators and additional train- Sas a Level 1 partner on the US April 2016. ing equipment. military’s Joint Strike Fighter pro- Current work includes a com- Elsewhere, 1980s-era hard- gramme, the UK is now just plete resurfacing of the shorter of ened aircraft shelters built for the months away from welcoming its the base’s two runways in Panavia Tornado will be refur- first examples of the Lockheed advance of the new aircraft bished, and about 90% of exist- Martin F-35B to home shores. arriving, with the main runway ing taxiways resurfaced – all Thirteen of the short take-off to later undergo the same pro- without disrupting operations in- and vertical landing (STOVL) cess. Three vertical-landing pads volving the RAF’s remaining Tor- type have now been handed over are at the start of their construc- nado GR4s. To leave use in April to the UK military, with this total tion process. 2019, the type has a key role in to increase to 14 by year-end. A new maintenance and fin- the UK’s Operation Shader activ- Ten aircraft are being used in ishing facility is already built, ity against Islamic State militants support of pilot and maintainer and will be capable of accommo- in Iraq and Syria, being flown training at MCAS Beaufort, South dating up to eight F-35Bs simul- from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Carolina, with Royal Air Force taneously for in-service support, and Royal Navy personnel work- plus another two in painting. SEAMLESS SWITCH ing alongside the US Marine Nearby, the UK’s national operat- UK Lightning force commander Corps’ VMFAT-501 squadron. ing centre has been completed, Air Cdre David Bradshaw – who Three more are assigned to the with Lockheed’s autonomic lo- also commands the RAF’s Torna- UK’s 17 Sqn operational evalua- gistics information system equip- do operations – says the transi- tion unit at Edwards AFB in Cali- ment to be installed from late No- tion between the different genera- “By the end of 2020, fornia, where its pilots are con- vember. The facility will open tions of aircraft must be a ducting operational testing, and early next year. seamless one. the F-35B will be developing tactics, techniques The squadron house for the Nine F-35Bs will arrive at RAF operational off the and procedures for the fifth-gen- RAF’s 617 Sqn – the first UK Marham in mid-2018, after mak- eration type. frontline unit to introduce the ing a transatlantic crossing ac- aircraft carriers” Meanwhile, infrastructure Lightning II – is also in construc- companied by Airbus A330 Voy- Air Cdre David Bradshaw work at RAF Marham in Norfolk tion, along with another for the ager tanker/transports. The UK Lightning force commander – the future home base for the 207 Sqn operational conversion STOVL aircraft will support the UK’s Lightning IIs – has reached unit (OCU). An integrated train- work-up process for the reformed a key stage, under an investment ing centre will from the middle of 617 Sqn, which should achieve however, be a shared asset in worth more than £500 million next year receive four full-motion initial operational capability next UK service. December. “This is a joint enterprise: at Bradshaw says the unit will every level, every rank, every be cleared to deploy on interna- trade, there will be a mix,” Brad- tional operations from early shaw says. The balance is set at 2019, with its Block 3F software- 58% RAF personnel and 42% standard aircraft having a UK- RN, with the senior and deputy specific weapons fit comprising command posts to always be Raytheon Systems Paveway IV held by officers from the services precision-guided bombs, plus in that order. Frontline squadron MBDA ASRAAM and Raytheon leadership posts will, however, AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air alternate between the services on missiles. Later, Block 4 additions each staff rotation to enforce the will include MBDA’s Meteor be- joint ethos. yond-visual-range air-to-air mis- sile and its extended-range CARRIER STRIKE Spear ground-attack weapon. Nowhere will this be more evi- He says 2018 “is going to be dent than at sea, with the F-35B momentous”, noting that the new to combine with two new RN type’s introduction will occur aircraft carriers to reinstate the Crown Copyright Crown during the centenary year of the UK’s carrier strike role: lapsed HMS Queen Elizabeth will host new type during sea trials next year RAF’s formation. The F-35B will, since the early retirement of the 20 | Flight International | 5-11 December 2017 flightglobal.com the very heart of the Lightning ment represents “the kernel of RAF Marham will be home to STOVL force to operate from land or sea what will become 617 Sqn”, combat aircraft, with 617 Sqn reaching – we will pick what is most ap- Bradshaw notes. initial capability next December propriate at the time.” The UK’s F-35 pilots hail from Capt Adam Clink, deputy the RAF’s Eurofighter Typhoon Lightning force commander, and Tornado GR4 communities, notes that the use of SRVL will and the former Joint Force Harri- restore a “big-deck” carrier capa- er organisation. Clink notes that bility not seen since HMS Ark the RN has maintained skills fol- Royal left service in 1979. “It is a lowing the Harrier GR9’s retire- significant change from a ship ment via a long-lead specialist safety point of view,” he notes. skills programme which saw its The UK has so far committed pilots take exchange posts flying to acquiring 48 F-35Bs for deliv- Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets ery by 2024, under an allocation with the US Navy. totalling £9.1 billion. However, In a significant milestone, the the nation’s formal requirement first of four ab initio pilots – two over the life of the programme re- RAF and two RN – was expected mains for 138 aircraft. to perform a debut flight in the F-35B around late November. FALLING COSTS The first UK aircraft to receive In addition to the 14 aircraft in its Block 3F software has already fleet by year-end, its firm backlog been flown at Edwards AFB, and totals another three examples, or- ski-jump testing has been com- dered last year as part of the US pleted at NAS Patuxent River in programme’s 10th lot of low-rate Maryland, where the UK has four initial production (LRIP). test pilots assigned to an integrat- In written evidence submitted ed test force. to the House of Commons De- Development of a training Crown Copyright Crown fence Select Committee in mid- syllabus has established a 50:50 November, Lockheed said the split between live and synthetic UK F-35B order history unit recurring flyaway cost for flying – a shift which Bradshaw the UK’s early F-35Bs has describes as “a completely differ- LRIP lot Order year No. of aircraft Unit price ($m) dropped from $161 million dur- ent approach”. 3 2009 2 161 ing LRIP-3 in 2009 to just over “In the past, all of our training 4 2010 1 139 $122 million in LRIP-10: a fall of would have been airborne, with 7 2013 1 137 24%. Its target is to reduce this to emergencies in the simulator,” he 8 2014 4 134 $105 million by the time of an notes. “We are trying to make 9 2015 6 131 LRIP-14 award. sure that we get the absolute most 10 2016 3 122 Lockheed and several interna- out of this aircraft.” 11 2017 1 tional customers – including the 12 2018 3 UK – are in favour of the US De- THIRD SQUADRON 13 2019 6 partment of Defense agreeing to a The Lightning force OCU will 14 2020 8 multiple-year contract for a total move to RAF Marham in of 440 aircraft through LRIP lots mid-2019, followed by a second 15 2021 7 12 to 14, to benefit from cost sav- frontline unit – 809 NAS – in 16 2022 6 ings ahead of the programme en- 2023. Longer term, a third Total 48 tering full-rate production. combat squadron could poten- Source: Lockheed Martin/UK Ministry of Defence The proposed three-year deal tially be accommodated at the remains the subject of discussion Norfolk base. Joint Force Harrier-operated with a so-called Bedford Array between Lockheed and the F-35 With the UK planning to oper- BAE Systems Harrier GR9. The system installed, enabling pilots Joint Programme Office. ate F-35s until at least 2048, Brad- RN’s new flagship, HMSQueen to employ a shipborne rolling The UK currently plans to shaw says it is likely to also con- Elizabeth, will be commissioned vertical landing (SRVL) tech- order 17 aircraft through this pe- sider acquiring the Lightning II in by her namesake in Portsmouth nique. riod, after a single unit during its conventional take-off and on 7 December. This will reduce wear and tear LRIP-11. Another 13 would be landing A variant. This has in- The 65,000t vessel will go on on the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney added through a proposed sec- creased range and payload capa- to host the first landings by an F-135 engine and LiftFan vertical ond multiple-year arrangement bility, increased manoeuvrability F-35B in the second half of 2018, landing system, and enable the covering orders in 2021-2022.